IQ Panel 4: Alexa announcements

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Iq4 panel: I would like to find a way to have the audible Announcements broadcasted around the home somehow. The panel speaker is uninspiring at best. I read about the Alexa skill and alarm.com integration but couldn’t be certain if that would solve my needs.

If not Alexa, would there be another creative way to broadcast audible sensor status ie (side yard motion detected) across home audio or whatnot? I used to do this with interlogix and control 4.

Just looking for ideas if anyone has taken this road previous

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Still have your control4?

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No, that was at a previous home which was sold.

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I that case both Hubitat and HA have Qolsys integrations that have taken advantage of the native Control4 integration on the panel.

If you really want these announcements using one of thosr platforms will allow you to automate the event.

If you have whole home audio you might consider a Sonos port etc. Sonos makes text to voice announcements simple on both Hubitat and HA.

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Well like I said, Control4 was an older setup that I no longer use.

As to adding hubitat for Sonos integration, that sounds perfect. I have plenty of Sonos equipment around.

I noticed there is an Audio Integration Service Package Add-On applied to your Alarm.com account Although I don’t know if this will skip the needing of the hubitat hardware or not, maybe you can share info?

Can surety authorize the audio add on in adc?

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Where did we get confusion on the control4? I know you don’t have it. The qolsys panel had a c4 integration that Hubitat uses without C4. Hubitat pretends to be C4.

The advantage of using something like Hubitat is that you have total control of the announcements.

You can find the qolsys integration on the Hubitat forum.

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Can surety authorize the audio add on in adc?

Audio integration is available on the Home or Complete plans through Surety, and is an optional free add-on for those plans. You can adjust your plan and selected add-ons in the system manager here at any time!

Alarm.com audio integration with Sonos will not allow the Sonos to announce panel events.

To duplicate panel chimes and announcements in other locations of the house, you could use the IQ Remote.

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@ Pounce, I misread your message, my mistake on the Control4 comments.

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Jason, I’m talking about real integration ideas using existing speakers in ones home ie Sonos or even a bandaid idea like Alexa. Adding 2ndary panels is not really useful in the real world where you want control of where the audio is broadcasted. The panels and the voice are similar to the dial up modem era and really uninspiring if I am being honest. If my location / situation was different I wouldn’t entertain this panel at all.

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I have control4 and Josh.ai. Josh does my announcements over my whole home audio. I also have Hubitat and have integrated Hubitat to qolsys in the past. Of the several ways I have done this the Hubitat and Sonos route was least expensive.

What you need to work out is how your whole home audio is set up. If you are all Sonos and no wired amps and matrix etc just use Sonos. If you are racked up for your home audio then a Sonos port into your matrix or your Amp array for all channel audio might make sense.

I assume since you had c4 prior you have some knowledge about how this all works.